IPL Auction 2024: Top 3 Unexpected Players Set for Highest Base Price at IPL Mini Auction with INR 2 Crore Base Price

The Indian Premier League (IPL) auction will take place in Dubai on December 19. This is the first time an auction will be held outside of the country. The retention window was closed on November 30 but the trading window is still open till December 12 and will be closed after that. The teams have already retained and released the players with Mumbai Indians (MI) being the talk of the teams after they traded Hardik Pandya from Gujarat Titans (GT) in an all-cash deal of 15 crore INR. 

There have been 1166 registrations for the auction. Twenty-five of them have put their base price at 2 crore INR. All 10 franchises will have only 77 places in total, 30 of which will be for international players. The list included 830 Indian players and 336 international players, including 212 capped players, 909 uncapped players, and 45 associate players. 

The IPL fixtures will be fixed only after the election dates have been finalised. As the T20 World Cup 2024 is also scheduled in June, the Board has told the teams that the toughest league will be held from the third week of March to the third week of May. In the article, we will be looking at the top surprising names at the highest base price of INR 2 crore of IPL auction.  

Here are 3 unexpected players who could be set for a big payday at the auction

3. Ben Duckett 

Ben Duckett is an exciting English batter. The opener has shown his class and abilities across all formats of the game. Duckett plays a wicket-keeper. He can be a good pick for any side as a backup keeper but the base price he has set has been raising questions among the fans, as they believe that the English opener is not worth 2 crore INR. Duckett has played in 184 T20s and scored 4497 runs at an average of 30.18 with a good strike rate of 137.52. The batter has not played IPL and it would be interesting to watch who will invest in the 29-year-old batter. 

2. Kedar Jadhav 

Kedar Jadhav is another surprising name in the 25 players list. Last season, no team purchased the now 38-year-old batter. Despite this, he stunned everyone by placing himself in the top basic price group. Kedar has been in several squads but the attacking middle-order batter failed to discover himself in the toughest franchise tournament. The 38-year-old batting all-rounder was not initially picked in the previous edition of the auction but was named as a replacement for English pacer David Willey for Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB).  

1. Angelo Mathews

Angelo Mathews is another name on the list of the 25 players. Mathews has represented various franchises in the IPL. The 36-year-old was first picked by Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR), then moved to Pune Warriors India and, then to Delhi. He played in 49 IPL matches between 2009 and 2017 for the above-mentioned teams. The former Sri Lanka captain has not been picked for T20I or ODI for Sri Lanka since March 2021. But he was named as the replacement in the ODI World Cup 2023. He could not have an impact in the white-ball cricket. It will be interesting to watch whether any team would invest in him in the auction.